I am considering starting a small beginning orchestra for homeschooled children. I personally play violin, viola and am currently working on getting a cello. I have played in some sort of orchestra from age 7 until 3 yrs ago when I moved to NC. It would be for any age that was a beginner and played a stringed instrument. I live in Eastern NC where there is no string program that I know of.

If you lived in this area would this be something you would be interested in?

There would be no competition or auditions it is strictly for children to play together as that is a good learning tool when starting an instrument.

Please if you have any feedback about this idea, good or bad. I am always open to suggestions. If you live in NC and want to know if you would be able to join in on this I would be serving the counties of Nash, Edgecombe, Wilson, and Halifax. If you live further out than these counties but still would be interested feel free to let me know. We would primarily meet in Edgecombe county. Like I said I don't have all my plans ironed out I am just looking for feedback and if anyone would be interested.

Mark-
Thank you for your feedback. I am sorry to hear that your daughter is selling her cello. I plan on making it as fun as possible. I know that learning a stringed instrument can be hard and can be discouraging if you don't have someone who is enthusiastic about teaching it. I was lucky and had awesome teachers when I was in school. I have tried getting the word out through the local HS groups where I am and even went to the private schools who let me send letters home with their students offering lessons and an orchestra experience. No luck yet. The pure lack of someplace to play I think discourages people from signing up. I can see where they are coming from I guess. If there is no place to play then why learn?!? I love to play and play at home. My daughter loves it when I play the Disney songs so she can dance and sing along. My son loves it when I fiddle. I am going to keep advertising around town. Hopefully I will get some interested folks soon.

not having an outlet for my music is one of the things that led me to put my horn down after my row with the Band Director. It does indeed make it hard to stay motivated to keep learning.
What I tell my kids is that it will be easier for them to keep learning now, before they have households of their own to maintain. And they see this in life since I don't get much practice time inbetween everything else.

Here are some items for you:
First, take a look at the local churches, some will have the ability to use a small orchestra. I think we're up to 14 members in ours right now. So if the youngsters learn to play fairly well, they might could help out with the music in their home church.
Next, for places to play, my daughter's violin teacher holds recitals at one of the retirement homes here in town. Her piano teacher holds recitals at a retirement center across the lake from us. My son not only plays with the church orchestra, he helps out with various music ministries about the church one one instrument or another.
As far as the community band we play with, I'm not sure where Debbie comes up with the venues for us. It's an adventure to be sure.

So keep your mind open about where to have them play, and keep putting the word out, because it's a wonderful idea you have there.

I am just about ready to give up on the idea. I have been trying to get people interested in this idea for 3 years now but there just doesn't seem to be any interest at all. I was hoping to get some feedback here so maybe I could figure out why people aren't interested. I guess stringed instruments are either to hard to learn for most of today's kids or just not as "cool" as band instruments. I don't know, but either way I have had little to no interest in the idea and most people who do start lessons think they are going to be able to play something other than beginning songs in a couple of weeks. When they can't they just quit. It just doesn't work that way. Stringed instruments have a technique that is not always easy for everyone, it takes practice and patients (like any instrument) and best I can gather most people don't have time for either.

Oh well, it's not my loss, I already know how to play and have had the "orchestra experience".

Probably it is brought about by the fact that there is not as much exposure
to the classics these days. And I am just as bad as everyone else.
We've been out here for 6 years and only last year did I take the kids
to see the Dallas Symphony Orchestra.
I should know better, since I grew up with Mom playing violin in
the Beaumont symphony.
I don't know what all you have out there in the way of orchestras at the moment, but
there is another way.
See if they have performances for the kids during the year and, if not,
you might ask them to consider taking on that challenge.
The DSO does three Kid's concerts during the school year with different
themes. This would start generating interest in orchestral instruments
for the kids out there.
It's a wonderful field trip as well. Then, as the kids are introduced to those instruments, their interest may indeed bloom into
a desire to make music with them.

I play and teach strings and other instruments, so I wouldn't sign my kids up with another teacher if I saw an ad for lessons.

However, I'm always interested in orchestras, and whenever I see anything promotional about one, esp if it says it caters to homeschoolers, I look into it.

Some reasons why I have not signed my kids up for various orchestras in the past have been:

--We are doing something unusual this year, like traveling overseas, moving, or having a new baby.
--The rehearsal and/or performance schedule conflicts with our family calendar.
--We can't afford the tuition this year.
--We just signed up for something else and I don't have energy for yet another thing.
--The info is sketchy and I don't know where/when it is or how much it will cost.
--I don't have any kids who are at the target ages/skill levels this year.
--It's farther than I will be able to go consistently. I don't want to be one of those families that only shows up sometimes.

Honestly I wish models like this were more common. If parents were really interested in getting their kids together to learn music outside of school then it would be a big blow against the lack of music ed in public schools. I also think it would be a big morale boost if you guys were to perform somewhere, like Mark said. Good luck!